Sunday, August 9, 2009

"The Awesome, Who shows no favor and takes no bribe, but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow and befriends the stranger..." Devarim10:17

In yesterday's d'var Torah, our rabbi spoke about the importance of all of us accepting all of klal yisroel and the rest of the world. It would be the utmost act of piety.

At the kiddush, I went over to the rabbi and told him how much I liked what he said.

Then I told him that I have an issue that I would like to discuss with him.

I stated that when a Palestinian storms a yeshiva and kills young men, we say tehillim and kel maaleh rachamim and hold rallies all over the city.

When a Charedi storms a youth center which happens to be a refuge for gay kids, not a word is spoken in synagogue, not a prayer is made for the wounded or killed, no kel maaleh rachamim is chanted, no tehillim are read.

His response to me was that he was on vacation last weekend without an internet connection so he did not hear anything about it.

I said that his response saddens me even more because if it was deemed a terrorist attack then even without an internet connection, he would have heard the news.

Shame.

SD

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a shame.

Careful, SD: we don't know the identity of the perpetrator yet. It wouldn't surprise us if it was a Haredi perpetrator (as it was during the pride march in Jerusalem a few years back), but it would be equally unacceptable if the shooter was from any other sector of Israel society, and would be just as tragic and frightening for the victims, who were killed for no other reason than seeking comfort for who they are.

Audrey B said...

Unfortunately, far too many Ultra-Orthodox Jews don't think the lives of gay people matter very much.

Jay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.